Step Two, Know Your Allies
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day six hundred and five:  Paper Heart #3  They both know they can't do it on their own, and now she has to work up the courage to speak.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 28th cycle. Now cycle 29!_

**TOP 16, TAKE 2: **_Okay so a couple cycles back, I did my second 'top of Glee at the moment' cycle. Now since I was still in university and such at the time, those were planned a while back, before the second half of the season every started. This made it that by the time that cycle rolled around I realized that some things had changed... Things were added, removed, bumped up... Point is it didn't really reflect where I was anymore. So I decided 'what the heck, I'll do another one ASAP!' And so here we are :) This is my revised Top 16 (of course I HAD to plan before the finale, so there are still a couple things missing like Samcedes, Unholy Trinity, etc, but let's assume they're there ;) They'll get some love in coming cycles ;)) So off we go!  
><strong>Coming in at number four...<strong>_

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><p><strong>"Step Two, Know Your Allies"<br>Kurt, Brittany/Santana  
><strong>**How to Fold a Paper Heart #3 (sequel to "Step One..." (obviously ;)) **

Now that they were sitting, waiting, both of them on the brink of telling someone they loved this massive piece of news, they couldn't manage a single word. It was as though they were saving whatever they had left in them in order to deliver the same information which had left them both so wrecked already.

Brittany had finished her ice cream, and now she had gone and honed all the insanity choking out her mind and focused it on destroying the empty cup into shreds. Kurt wanted to stop her, but she'd had a bad day, so he wasn't going to take anything away from her that could help keep her mind as close as possible to 'in one place.' With that in mind, he kept an eye out for Santana's arrival.

When he saw her coming up through the lot, he tensed up. This was it, no more safety net. For him, it meant leaving Brittany there and going home… to his father… to tell him… Oh, his heart was going mad again… He looked back to the blonde, who'd pulverized the last of the cup now.

"Hey…. She's here," he spoke softly. Brittany looked up, nervous again. "It's going to be okay, I mean… You guys are best friends, she'll understand…"

"Right," Brittany left it there, not wanting to go into details with him right then. Kurt gave her one more look before craning his neck and signalling Santana as she walked through the door. When she saw him sitting there with Brittany, she frowned.

"What's going on?" she asked, not a quip in her once she saw the look on both their faces, and the state of Brittany's ice cream cup.

"Are you going to be okay if I go?" Kurt looked back to Brittany, and her eyes moved to Santana before turning to him. She gave a short nod. "Call later?" he checked, and again she confirmed. "Okay…" his voice dropped as he stood, hesitating for a moment before turning to Santana. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't come up with a thing, so he bowed his head and headed off. Santana was speechless, too, though for other reasons… She had no idea what was going on with the two of them.

"Since when are the two of you this close?" she asked as she took over the seat Kurt had left behind.

"Oh, we've been closer than that," Brittany spoke on reflex, rearranging her ice cream cup shreds in a neat pile. For once she heard herself, and she turned her eyes up at this.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Santana asked, not liking where her own conclusions were taking her. Brittany didn't reply, just kept working at her shred pile. "Hey…" Santana drew her attention by slipping her hand over the pile. Brittany still didn't look up, but the trance was broken. "Come on, you've had me scared all week. First you were sick, and then today you just disappeared from school, then texted to get me here and there you are, with Kurt and…"

"He took me to the clinic," Brittany cut in, and that quieted her.

"Did they find what was wrong?" Santana asked, serious now.

"Oh yeah," Brittany nodded to herself. Again the silence took over, and Santana could only bear it so long before she had to speak up.

"Britt, come on, the longer you wait the more ideas it puts in my head that you might…" Brittany had been staring at her as she went on, and seeing how worked up Santana was getting, she knew she had to just come right out and say it… She wasn't going to get more ready than this even if she tried.

"I'm pregnant," she said the words, for the very first time, and if it had been anyone but Santana, she might have lost her calm right then and there; that made one of them.

"P… Sorry?" Santana's brain had gone haywire. Brittany shrank back in her seat, which at least got Santana to settle down a bit. "I-I mean… W… Are you sure?" Brittany nodded quietly. "When did this… Who's…" Santana went on, and the blonde's eyes veered sideways.

"Well…" she didn't know where to start. At least she had sent Kurt off, so however she reacted, then he wouldn't be anywhere within reach of her nails… Still it felt like she was about to get scolded, and her head went down, reaching to the pile of shreds…

"Hey," Santana scooped the pile away, dumped it on the next table over. She was going to go with the direct approach again, but Santana actually beat her to it this time. "Wait… wait, wait…"

"I'm waiting," Brittany confirmed, but Santana leaned in.

"No way, it can't be… him?" her finger pointed out the window. Brittany looked where she pointed, then frowned.

"No…" she cringed. Santana looked.

"No, I don't mean…" she started correcting her, but then snapped out of it with a shake of the head and got back on track. "Kurt?" she whispered. Brittany shyly nodded. "But he's…"

"I know," she went on.

"And you…" Santana thought back, and she remembered… That week of complete madness when Kurt had tried to make himself all… Trucker Chic, and Brittany had gone after him, and… "I'm going to kill him," she threw her hands in the air, and Brittany shook her head, begging. "Oh, you know what I mean," she sighed.

"N… No, not always…" Brittany trailed off.

"Are you okay?" Santana finally asked, and Brittany sat back. Up until then, she'd been glad to have something to focus on. Now they were back on topic, and her skin clammed up all over again.

"Confused," she told her, pausing to silently consider how that almost went without saying. "I always thought it happened… Not like this," she shook her head, pausing again. "But then at the clinic, the way they talked about it… the Doctor, and Kurt, and… Being sick, and needles, and… I didn't think any of this was so bad, but… Kurt got scared, and I got scared, and… I had no idea, I swear, I had no idea…" her panic was rising, and Santana took her hands.

"Breathe, okay? You need to breathe," she told her, and Brittany did as told.

"I can't go home," she shook her head. "Not now. So Kurt suggested I call you… Can I stay with you? Just for tonight?" she begged.

"Okay, maybe I won't kill him," Santana spoke to herself before looking back to Brittany. "I mean of course you can come over, and if you say the word I can convince both our parents to let you stay for as long as you like and make them think it was their idea," she promised, which got a small laugh out of Brittany. "Great, so that's settled."

"Thank you," she let out a breath, wiping at her eyes.

"Do you want more ice cream? I mean, let's face it, right now you've got a free pass, might as well use it," Santana shrugged, part of it for truth, part of it to keep her smiling… She achieved both.

"Put fudge on it this time?" Brittany begged curiously.

"You got it," Santana went to the counter.

Brittany sighed, dropping her chin in her palms. She'd been so scared to confide in her, like she wouldn't want to be her friend anymore, like she wouldn't want to be…

But now she knew she wouldn't lose her, even better, she would help her… That only raised more questions, ones she didn't know at all how to answer, either because it was still too early, or because she felt she shouldn't decide without Kurt… Santana was already assuming for the future, letting her stuff herself with ice cream… That wasn't going to solve all their problems… If it did, this place would be packed.

She didn't know how Kurt was doing with his father. He was stronger than her; she knew that. He'd been there for her all through… the clinic, and after, waiting for Santana… If they were in this, then she'd make sure that she could be strong for him, too…

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******

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><p><strong><strong><strong>PS: I'm going to work to find a way to make a list available of the various series, I just need to find a way to make the link available, since this site seems to have an issue with putting links to stuff ;)<strong>****


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